esprit de l'escalier

On the ferry

Last week I was on a ferry to Nantucket. We made it in time to watch the sunset, which was pretty nice. Here are some photos from the journey. Wish I was there again.

Impossible Nantucket

My brother gifted me a pack of Impossible Project black frame silver shade film recently. I brought the pack with me to Nantucket and took some photos. This stuff is GOOD. I am very sad I messed up one of the photos in my pocket. The top photo is of the Sankaty lighthouse, then Nickleen, and then a house at Steps Beach. Oh this film.

Operation Leo Drop: Race to Nantucket

This past weekend I took an epic roadtrip with my friend Tony to Nantucket with my cat Leo in tow. My mother thought this was a terrible idea, so I didn't tell her I was going through with it. (Sorry Mom.) We were taking Leo to my Flickr friend Nickleen. I had been looking for a new home for Leo. I was never home enough, and he was bored. He needed more activity and more sociable home. Nickleen had the perfect home for him. Knowing that helped me feel less guilty about having to give up the cat.

Not only did Nickleen give Leo a new home, but she and her family opened their beautiful home to us for two days and showed us all over the island. Oh Flickr friends, you are wonderful people. I always liken my friends made through Flickr as penpals. The best sort of penpals, because you get to see glimpses of their lives, as well as read their words. Thank you, Nickleen, for having us last minute and for giving Leo what I know will be a great home.

Our epic roadtrip was a complete success. The cat was a champ in the car. We started the trip Thursday night with a quick jaunt to Akron to stay with my friends Amanda and Mike and their cat Russell. I wanted to get a leg up on our journey, and it gave us a couple hours. I was a little paranoid about making the last ferry to Nantucket. In the end we made the earlier ferry. The cat got to stretch his legs a bit, too. 

Many photos to follow. To start with, here's some instagram shots. Instant, 35mm, and medium format to follow. Search #ackleo on instagram and twitter if you want to see Nickleen's and Tony's photos. (Thanks to Tony for coming with me on my hairbrained scheme. You're an awesome travel buddy.)

Final Roid Week shots

Oh Roid Week, I will miss you.

More Roid Week

More of my friends on some expired Polaroid film.

Roid Week!

It's my favorite week this week! Roid Week on Flickr! This year we can only post two photos a day. I didn't have any saved up, and I haven't been shooting much instant, so for the last two weeks I've been making some photos of friends. Here's my friend Tina, and my friend's roommate's dog. Two cuties. Jackson is technically a cuteroonie, or so I'm told. More photos to come.

Fete en Blanc 2012

Friday night my friends Genevieve Reiner, Mandy Jones, and Shawnie Foy pulled off another successful pop-up picnic, Fête en Blanc. Their second round of this fabulous picnic under the stars pulled about 400 people to Goodale Park! The day started off soggy, but the rains cleared, except for a quick drizzle right before the party started. But the gods do love a good party, the rains cleared, and apparently there was a rainbow over the park. A good omen, if there ever was one.

This year my party expanded a bit, with about twelve us of potlucking a picnic, and another 5 somewhat in our party as well. Next year I'm going to decide to buy dinner from one of the vendors. Bringing all our own food as well as the plates and tables and chairs was too much. But the evening was great fun. I got to chat with a bunch of friends, danced under the stars to The Randys (I seriously love this band), and had a grand old time. I can't wait to see what the ladies pull together for next year!

I didn't take as many photos as I did last year, but here are some that I did take. Enjoy! (Oh and here's an instagram shot of me and Rachel, taken by Beth. I took a medium format shot of Rachel, but I'm not sure when I'll get that developed.) (Oh and here's my post from last year.)

On luck and friendship

I often feel lucky that I have the parents I have. At the moment I am thankful that they taught us that friendship comes in all shapes, sizes, and ages. My parents have always had friends that were different ages than their own. They used to have crying hours (aka cocktail hour) when we were babies with people from their parents' generation, and made lasting friendships with couples younger than them too. It was a good model to have, because its inclusive and let us know that we can have meaningful relationships with people of differing ages and backgrounds, outside of just family members and peers. They tacitly showed us that we can learn from people old and young.

This is something I found myself thinking about today, as I had lunch with a brand new friend who happens to be about 9 years younger than me. And this weekend I spent the afternoon with one of my favorite people, and I'm only a couple of years older than her daughter. (Great photos from our photo walk to come...) A couple of weeks ago my fabulous friend Bertie hosted a Craft Wars viewing party/competition in DC, and she is four years older than me. (Ok, so that age gap isn't huge, but I am behind on blogging and owe a post on that, so I thought I'd throw her a shout out. Hey Bird!) My point is, I am lucky enough to meet kindred spirits in this world, and smart enough to reach out for a hug when I do. And I'm so glad that I do. Thanks for setting me on the right path, parents.

There are lots of people that I meet that I like, but there are fewer that I meet and want to take by the hand and go into a corner to talk deeply about life and to scheme some adventures. My new friend Rachel is one of those people. We met through another new friend of mine, and an odd happenstance of the internet, my memory for faces, and the smallness of this city. Fate perhaps? Who knows. Just the right mix. I hope our serendipity - with both new friendships - is a good omen. Here's to adventures with new friends.